Lamborn, with a 'heavy heart,' rolls in CD-5

By: JOHN SCHROYER

November 5, 2012

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Kurt Baron, left, and his dad, Jeff Baron congratulate Congressman Doug Lamborn at the Doubletree Hotel in Colorado Springs, Colo. after Lamborn was reelected to a fourth term in Congress Tuesday, November 6, 2012 Photo by Mark Reis, The Gazette Photo by MARK REIS, THE GAZETTE

Congressman Doug Lamborn appears to have locked down a fourth term Tuesday night, fending off five challengers, including one write-in candidate.

A little after 8 p.m., the Associated Press projected that Lamborn would be the victor. According to the Colorado Secretary of State's early, unofficial results at 11 p.m., Lamborn had about 65 percent of the vote in the five counties that make up Colorado's Congressional District 5, while independent candidate Dave Anderson, who had been considered Lamborn’s strongest opponent, was second with about 18 percent.

In third place was Libertarian Jim Pirtle with about 7 percent, followed by Green Party candidate Misha Luzov with 6 percent and American Constitution Party candidate Kenneth Harvell with 4 percent. The Colorado Secretary of State website did not have results for write-in candidate George Allen Cantrell, but he had only about 0.34 percent of the vote in El Paso County, the largest of the five CD-5 counties.

Lamborn said his was a bittersweet victory, because of President Barack Obama's re-election.

"I feel good in the sense that the people of this district have entrusted me with that representation in Washington. That's a high honor and privilege. I’m happy about that. But at the same time, I do have a heavy heart, knowing that we have a big challenge in Washington," Lamborn said.

No Democrat ran for Colorado's Congressional District 5.

At his party at the Mining Exchange downtown, Anderson told supporters that he hoped voters in CD-5 would support a candidate and not a party. That, he said, was one of the reasons he ran.

Many pundits agreed that the race had been essentially decided in June, when Lamborn defeated Republican businessman Robert Blaha in a heated primary. CD-5 is a solid GOP district, with 208,000 registered Republicans.

And though there are roughly 174,000 unaffiliated voters — which is about a third of the congressional district — they generally don’t consolidate behind an unknown unaffiliated candidate, especially one with no political background. And neither do Democrats.

But the odds and the numbers didn’t dissuade Anderson, who pulled together both Democratic and Republican support throughout his campaign.

As of 11 p.m. Tuesday, Lamborn had about 59 percent of the vote in El Paso County and 70 percent in Teller County.

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